iWorld
Applause’s Sameer Nair spills the secret sauce for hit storytelling
MUMBAI: At Ficci Frames’ silver jubilee edition, a candid panel discussion between Applause Entertainment managing director Sameer Nair and India Today senior editor and anchor Akshita Nandagopal, brought the house down with humour, insight and a healthy dose of industry nostalgia.
Moderating the fireside chat ‘Scaling stories, earning applause,’ Nandagopal kicked off by asking if Applause Entertainment had cracked the “OTT code,” given its slate of acclaimed shows like Criminal Justice (2019-present), The Hunt (2025) and Black Warrant (2025).
Nair brushed off the idea of any secret formula. “Storytelling is a difficult enterprise,” he said. “You put in all the hard work and finally show it to an audience, sometimes they love it, sometimes they don’t. What we try to do is tell stories that feel real, even if they entertain first.”
Citing his fondness for contemporary history, Nair explained how Applause often draws inspiration from real people and events, and banks on the entertainment factor. Black Warrant, he pointed out, isn’t about the dark underbelly of the Tihar Jail and the inmates as much as it is about “three young people on their first day at work; only, their workplace happens to be the Tihar Jail.” The company’s celebrated Criminal Justice series, meanwhile, has gone far beyond its British and American counterparts. “By the fourth season, we weren’t adapting anymore. We were living in the world of Madhav Mishra,” he said with a grin.
Continuing the conversation on creativity in Indian storytelling, Nandagopal asked Nair, “Creativity is always a buzzword, but sometimes it feels boxed in a certain way. You can’t talk about uncomfortable topics; you have to be mindful of controversy and what entertains an Indian audience. Do you think creativity is constrained like that?”
Amusedly, Nair interjected, noting that this isn’t unique to India. “In the eight years we’ve been doing this, we haven’t really got into much trouble, so we must be doing something right. We don’t have an agenda; we’re telling stories that make you think, but not what to think. We find compelling characters, research their worlds, and present their stories as balanced and entertaining as possible. They are people like you and me.”
He brought up The Hunt as an example, which begins with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi but quickly transitions into a police procedural. “It’s not about politics; it’s about crime and justice… In the process, you get to know the characters. There’s one scene where Sivarasan, the one-eyed LTTE mastermind, sits in a theater watching a Rajnikanth film. We loved putting that in, it humanises him without glorifying anything.”
When Nandagopal brought up the theme of change, both broadly and through the lens of content, Nair noted how some formats have stood the test of time. “KBC is a classic because it has a great format and Mr. Bachchan,” he said, crediting both star power and familiarity for its relic appeal. “Audiences talk about change all the time, but they also love familiarity. Sometimes you don’t want a murder mystery; you just want to relax.” To which, Nandagopal nodded and said, ‘It’s a comfort watch. A lot of us do that. We’ve been watching a lot of the classics that we’ve seen before. Knowing that that’s something that’s predictable. We know what we’re expecting there. And yet we love to watch it.
Looking back at the first Ficci Frames two decades ago, Nair painted a vivid picture of how dramatically the industry had evolved. “In 2005, television ruled everything. There was no Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, even the iphone didn’t exist. By 2015, digital platforms had become the barbarians at the gate. Now, in 2025, we’re minor players compared to Netflix, Youtube and social media. And just as we adjusted to that, AI arrived.”
The conversation soon turned to the elephant in every creator’s room: will AI replace creativity or enhance it? Nair’s reply was measured. “AI will be a great tool if it can create that suspension of disbelief,” he said. “When you see a dinosaur chasing you in Jurassic Park, you believe it. If AI can make you believe without breaking the illusion, it’s magic. But if it looks fake, we might as well be watching animation.”
He added that AI, much like earlier leaps in filmmaking, from special effects to computer graphics, would revolutionise the process but not erase human creativity. “Even an AI actor needs direction, a script and a story,” he said. “If machines create everything end to end, without human emotion, we’ll just be watching something intelligent but soulless. We must use it wisely.”
As the conversation veered back to Applause’s future, Nair revealed that the company has recently acquired the rights to Jeffrey Archer’s books and has a robust slate of upcoming projects. Upcoming projects include new seasons of Criminal Justice and Black Warrant, the next installment of the Scam franchise, and a Tamil feature Bison directed by Tamil director and screenwriter Mari Selvaraj. He also teased Gandhi, a three-season epic inspired by Indian historian and author Ramachandra Guha’s books. “It’s not about Gandhi,” Nair chuckled and said, “it’s about Mohandas before he became the Mahatma: an 18-year-old who goes to college in London, and does all the standard things that rebellious teenagers do.”
For Nair, storytelling remains deeply human: an approach that has shaped Applause Entertainment’s diverse slate, from thrillers rooted in true events to expansive biographical dramas.
In a world where algorithms and art are learning to coexist, it’s a fitting reminder that great storytelling, no matter the medium, will always find its audience.
iWorld
Netflix celebrates a decade in India with Shah Rukh Khan-narrated tribute film
MUMBAI: Netflix is celebrating ten years in India with a slick anniversary film voiced by Shah Rukh Khan, a nostalgic sprint through a decade that rewired how the country watches stories. The campaign doubles as both tribute and reminder: streaming did not just enter Indian homes, it quietly rearranged them.
Roll back to 2016 and television still dictated schedules. Viewers waited weeks, sometimes months, for favourite films to appear on prime time. Family-friendly filters narrowed options further, and piracy often filled the gaps. Then Netflix arrived, softly but decisively, carrying a catalogue of international titles rarely seen in Indian theatres and placing them a click away. Old blockbusters and new releases suddenly coexisted on the same digital shelf.
The platform’s real inflection point came in 2018 with Sacred Games, a breakout series that refused to dilute India’s grit for global comfort. Audiences embraced its unvarnished tone, signalling readiness for stories that did not need box-office validation or censorship compromises. What followed was a steady procession of relatable narratives. Competitive-exam anxiety fuelled Kota Factory. College relationships unfolded in Mismatched. Everyday pressures, not grand spectacle, proved bankable.
Language barriers thinned as foreign series arrived with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbing, expanding viewership beyond urban English-speaking pockets. Marketing mirrored the shift. For global releases such as Squid Game, Netflix leaned on regional creators and influencers to localise buzz and make international content feel native.
The library widened beyond fiction. Documentaries stepped out of festival circuits into living rooms. Stand-up comedians found scale. Established filmmakers, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Heeramandi, embraced the platform’s long-form canvas. Subscriber numbers swelled to 12.37 million in India, according to Demandsage, and behaviour followed suit. Late-night binges became routine. Friday release rituals loosened. Watch parties turned solitary screens into social events.
Economics demanded adjustment. Early subscription pricing carried a premium aura that deterred many households. Over time, Netflix recalibrated plans to align with Indian spending sensibilities, conceding that accessibility is as critical as content. To extend momentum around marquee titles, the platform also experimented with split-season releases, stretching anticipation and watch time.
The anniversary film, narrated by Shah Rukh Khan, captures the linguistic shift that mirrors the cultural one: from “Netflix pe kya dekha?” to “Netflix pe kya dekhein?” The question moved from recounting the past to planning the next binge. In ten years, Netflix morphed from foreign entrant to familiar fixture, exporting Indian stories abroad while importing global ones home. The remote no longer waits; it chooses, clicks and moves on. In the streaming age, patience is out, playlists are in, and the next episode is always one tap away.
e-commerce
Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit
Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.
Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.
The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.
Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.
A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.
Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.
His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.
From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.
e-commerce
Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push
MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.
As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.
Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.
Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.
The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.
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